Country · Asia
Vietnam
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Vietnam is a country in South-Eastern Asia. Its capital city is Hanoi. About 95.5 million people live there, in an area of 331 212 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Xiaobin Liu (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Vyacheslav Argenberg (CC BY 4.0) · NKSTTSSHNVN (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Jakub Hałun (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Vietnam?
Vietnam lies in South-Eastern Asia, on the continent of Asia.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 1 800 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 3 444 km long.
It shares a border with 3 countries: Cambodia, China and Laos.
How big is Vietnam?
Vietnam covers 331 212 square kilometres.
That is about 8 times the size of Switzerland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 66th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 288.5 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Vietnam?
About 95.5 million people live in Vietnam.
That is the 15th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Vietnamese.
They pay with the Vietnamese đồng (₫).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 69 years.
The land of Vietnam
Its coast runs for about 3 444 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 172 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Vietnam different?
A dish the country is known for: Phở and Bún bò Huế.
Websites from here often end in .vn.
Vietnam and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 13 live in Vietnam.
It takes up about 0.25 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Asia it is the 19th largest of 46 countries, and the 8th most populated.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Vietnam and its neighbours
China, its largest neighbour, is about 29.3 times bigger.
China has more people: 1.4 billion against 95.5 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 2 live wild in Vietnam: King cobra and Reticulated python. The longest river is the Mekong, running 4 350 km from source to mouth.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Vietnam?
The capital of Vietnam is Hanoi. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Vietnam?
About 95.5 million people live in Vietnam, which makes it the 15th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Vietnam?
Vietnam borders Cambodia, China and Laos — 3 neighbours in total.
How big is Vietnam?
Vietnam covers 331 212 square kilometres, making it the 66th largest country in the world. That is about 8 times the size of Switzerland.
Which continent is Vietnam in?
Vietnam is in Asia, in the part called South-Eastern Asia.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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